Former Naval Information Warfare Center civilian employee James Soriano and defense contractor Russell Thurston allegedly conspired to commit fraud to the tune of more than $100 million, according to an indictment brought by the U.S. Southern District of California.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleges that Soriano used his position to influence contract decisions that favored the company for which Thurston was working. He and his employees allegedly gave Soriano favors and gifts in exchange for contract sway.

Thurston and his subordinates allegedly gave Soriano free meals at restaurants and a ticket to the 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, as well as “jobs for a family member and friends,” according to a U.S. Justice Department release announcing the indictment.

The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and making fraudulent and false statements in tax returns. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, according to the Feds.

Soriano worked at the Naval Information Warfare Center from 2006 to 2019, during which time he served as “contracting officer representative,” the release said. In that role, he was meant to ensure the integrity of contracting process.

“Soriano instead used his considerable influence to steer lucrative contracts to Russell Thurston of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, who was an executive vice president of a company vying for defense contracts with locations in Arlington, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina,” according to the release. “The company provided technical and consulting services in the information technology field.”

In order to hide evidence of the alleged fraud, Soriano and Thurston “would intentionally delete document properties on procurement documents drafted by employees,” according to the release.

Soriano, required by law to disclose yearly gifts as a government employee, also failed to report any such offerings from Thurston’s company. As a result, he also faces three counts of filing false tax returns.

“This indictment reveals callous greed at the cost of taxpayer dollars,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a release announcing this week’s indictment. “This office will vigorously investigate and prosecute fraud that threatens public trust in our institutions.”

The A24 film, which depicts an America in shambles, follows a team of journalists chronicling warring factions across America, according to the film’s description.

In the trailer’s opening scene, Nick Offerman (”The Last of Us”), playing the president of the United States, calls out the actions of an “illegal secessionist government.”

Though little has been offered in the way of film’s plot or the conflict’s backstory, Offerman’s character goes on to label the secessionists as the “Florida Alliance” and the “Western Forces of Texas and California.”

Scenes of tense military action unfold as a haunting, whistled rendition of “America the Beautiful” plays. The overlaid text indicates violence spilling over “from sea to shining shining sea,” before the destruction of the Lincoln Memorial wraps up the trailer.

Wagner Moura (”Narcos”), Kirsten Dunst (“Fargo”) and Jesse Plemons (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) star in the film, which lands in theaters on April 12.

Last year may have unveiled a handful of military-centric films, such as “Guy Ritchie’s: The Covenant” and “Kandahar,” but there are even more action-packed thrillers around the corner in 2024.

Films that troops should have on their radar this year — even just as a means of escaping the barracks for a few hours — span fantasy to history and feature phenomenal casts, writers, directors, and, of course, special effects.

Here’s a look at nine movies to get excited about in the months ahead.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The post-apocalyptic Australian Wasteland is back with a prequel chronicling the origin story of young Imperator Furiosa. The story traces back to her childhood and follows her journey before meeting Max Rockatansky. Anya Taylor-Joy (”The Menu”) takes on the role of the gritty Furiosa, with Chris Hemsworth co-starring. “Furiosa” is set for a May 24 release.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Nearly 200 years before the Fellowship set out to defeat Sauron and destroy the one ring, there was “The War of the Rohirrim.” This animated adaptation is expected to fill in some story gaps between Amazon’s “Rings of Power” series and Peter Jackson’s beloved trilogy — particularly the fall of the kings of Rohan and the origins of Helm’s Deep. The film stars Brian Cox (”Succession”) as the voice of King Helm Hammerhand and is slated for a December debut.

The Old Guard 2

A sequel to 2020′s “The Old Guard,” this film is expected to pick up right after the first film’s shocking end that left fans clamoring for more. The first movie centered on a group of mercenaries whose secret powers of immortality are exposed. The betrayal is explained, but the ending was left open for a follow-up, which began filming in 2022. Original cast members Charlize Theron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and KiKi Layne reprise their roles.

Civil War

An all-too-relevant topic, considering today’s political discourse, civil war has broken out in the United States in this film by Alex Garland (”Ex Machina”). A team of journalists covers the fracturing factions across America amid tense scenes of militarized conflict. Jesse Plemons (”Killers of the Flower Moon”), Kirsten Dunst (”Fargo”), and Nick Offerman (”The Last of Us”) star, with the film expected to arrive in theaters on April 26.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

This Guy Ritchie-directed World War II movie tells the origin story of British special forces, stood up at the direction of Winston Churchill. The film, starring Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel”) and Eiza González (“Baby Driver”), is based on the Special Operations Executive, or SOE, which was sanctioned to use “ungentlemanly” tactics to fight the Nazis. The exact release date is still up in the air.

Escape from Germany

Arriving in theaters on April 11, “Escape from Germany” tells the true story of 85 American missionaries from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who narrowly escaped Nazi captors as World War II begins. The film is based on first-hand accounts from diaries belonging to the missionaries.

Land of Bad

Due out Feb. 16, this action thriller directed by William Eubank (“House of the Rising Sun”) boasts a big cast, including Russell Crowe, Milo Ventimiglia, and Liam and Luke Hemsworth. The plot centers on a JTAC mission in the Philippines involving a CIA asset extraction gone wrong. The trailer features tense firefights and some serious hand-to-hand combat, to boot. Even the MQ-9 Reaper plays a pivotal role.

Six Triple Eight

Directed by Tyler Perry and starring Kerry Washington (”Scandal”), “Six Triple Eight” chronicles the impact of the U.S. Army’s 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-female, predominantly Black unit deployed during World War II. The women face racial discrimination, but ultimately prove to be a force for diversification of the U.S. military.

Undying Love

Based on a graphic novel, “Undying Love” centers on a former soldier named John Sargent and his love for a woman who happens to be a vampire held captive by her creator. It’s Sargent’s mission to kill her captor and set her free. Though details are scant and the cast hasn’t been announced, David Leitch (”John Wick” and ”Hobbs & Shaw”) is set to direct. To that, we say “Bring on the gun-fu.”

And while that movie was loosely based on a true story about a bear that ingested the drug after a plane crash, such fictional carnage may never have happened if a Grizzly Bear Conflict Manager had been called.

Though the bear’s story is fiction, that job is real. In fact, it’s a federal position under the Department of the Interior. And it pays a pretty penny too.

Grizzly Bear Conflict Managers serve under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The rating is GS-12 with a salary range of $79,363 to $103,176 a year.

According to the posting, “The Grizzly Bear Conflict Manager is responsible for coordinating grizzly bear conflict management in MT, WY, ID, and WA jointly with state agencies, tribes, and Wildlife Services (WS) according to grizzly bear recovery plan, Interagency Grizzly Bear Guidelines, and inter-agency agreements.”

What constitutes a Grizzly bear conflict, however, is absent from the job listing. Though it seems unlikely anyone who holds the position will serve as a referee in Ursus arctos horribilis wrestling matches.

It appears that the job focuses largely on preventing bear violence and tracking local Grizzly populations.

“[E]fforts include making final relocation and removal decisions, in consultation with Recovery Coordinator, and coordinating a ground response such as relocation, trapping operations, conflict prevention, and monitoring bears,” the posting reads.

What is clear about the position is that it requires a love of the outdoors and a relatively high level of physical fitness.

“When engaged in field activities, the work is at times strenuous, requiring exertion such as walking over wet, rough, uneven or rocky surfaces; bending, crouching, stooping, stretching, reaching, or similar activities,” the job post notes. “The work requires average agility and dexterity.”

Grizzly bear handling experience is needed, as the role is supervisory in nature, requiring the management of a team of Grizzly bear specialists. For that, a biological science degree is required on top of at least one year of related work experience.

If any of that gives you paws, this may not be the job for you.

Working at the Pentagon, home to the U.S. Department of Defense, is not exactly an easy job.

This five-sided building is designed to be one the world’s largest, most utilitarian office buildings, and to say that it has all the charm of a prison cell is… generous. The menacing beige building was deemed “ugly as sin” by the Commission for Fine Arts, and frankly, waking up at 7 a.m. every day to sit in one of its thousands of dark cubicles is enough to make a grown man cry.

As a result, one such worker, an Army veteran by the name of Drew Duggins, took to Twitter earlier this year to ask the best place to bawl among the Pentagon’s five halls.

Over a hundred responses poured in, with the suggestions ranging from funny to profoundly sad. These are Military Times’ preferred sob spots.

1. The parking lot, at dawn, watching the sun rise over D.C. knowing you won’t have access to the outside world for nine hours.

2. Into a burrito bowl from Moe’s at a dirty rice-crusted corner table. Don’t forget the queso.

3. In the bathroom after you get lost trying to find your way to your office on your first day.

4. In the courtyard, with the sun illuminating the tears on your face as cigarette smoke tingles into your nostrils, praying that the second-hand smoke takes you quickly.

5. On the ramp hallway that features black and white photos of Italian troops. It’s a really sensory experience.

6. With a box of Munchkins in your lap at Dunkin’ Donuts. Powdered sugar is known to dry tears.

7. At the gift shop. The knitted Pentagon scarves make good handkerchiefs. Plus, you could pick up a fun $60 snowglobe — that should help improve your mood.

8. At Popeye’s over biscuits and gravy. It’s already salty as sin, what could a few more tears do but enhance the flavor?

9. An empty sensitive compartmented information facility, more commonly known as a SCIF. Is there anything more sensitive than a good cry?

Bonus: At the Defense News and Military Times desks in the press pool. Come for the tears, stay for the stories.

Veterans on a panel at the MCON convention on military and veteran culture in Las Vegas, Nevada, discussed the value of spouses in the workforce, as well as the reasons why they seek employment.

“Some Army families are now considering leaving service as a result in line to income,” said Eric Eversole, President of Hiring our Heroes. “We as a country need to wake up the way that we take care of families. It’s going to be critically important to maintain that all volunteer force, because for too long, military families were forced to rely on one income and they can’t keep doing it.”

According to veteran Tiffany Daugherty, who is also a military spouse and is now the Head of Military Talent for Johnson & Johnson, military spouses are the bedrock of their families — as emotional support but also financial providers.

“They bring tremendous skills, just like service members have a certain set of unique skills,” she noted. “Nobody understands how to be the glue of a team like a military spouse does when I work with them.”

Samantha Domingo, a military spouse who now works as the Staff Military Relations & Critical Programs Talent Strategist at Lockheed Martin, once worked in a commissary in Germany to help support her family. It took her nine years to finish her MBA program.

Despite her perseverance, she found that, in job hunting, she was always concerned about not checking enough boxes on applications.

“As a military spouse, oftentimes we really struggle with impostor syndrome,” said Domingo. “We think we have to be prepared and meet all of the requirements from the basic qualifications all the way through to the preferred and desired, and then we take the job, and we’re bored.”

Domingo suggested that finding a network of supportive people goes a long way.

“You need you need to have folks around you that see your value. And if they don’t, they’re probably not the right circle for you. And you just keep moving.”

Reading such titles makes it hard not to liken the naming pattern to the U.S. military’s own operation naming conventions, which are typically indistinct adjective-noun combinations that evoke anything from absurd patriotism to complete confusion.

As such, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite U.S. military operation monikers that could easily pass as Taylor Swift song titles.

1. Red Dawn

While Operation Red Dawn was the mission that led to the capture of Iraq’s ousted leader, Saddam Hussein, it carries a rather lyrical ring to it and evokes a poetic morning of sorts. Plus, it’s derived from the 1984 film of the same name, starring impossibly tight jean-wearer Patrick Swayze.

2. Acoustic Kitty

The CIA in the Cold War attempted (and failed) to turn cats into the ultimate spies by implanting listening devices into their ears. Swift, meanwhile, is a known cat mother of three named Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson and Benjamin Button. The idea that she might sing about them isn’t terribly far afield.

3. Casanova

In 2013, 12 men were arrested in Texas in connection “with a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.” However, given Swift’s history of writing about men in comically stereotypical roles and gender norms, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a Swiftian song about a seductive lead with many lovers.

4. Morning Light

Operation Morning Light involved a 1978 search for a Soviet nuclear-powered spy satellite — Cosmos 954 — that accidentally entered northern Canadian airspace before crashing. The American and Canadian militaries worked together to collect its debris. For Swift, it would perhaps be a song about the refreshing experience of waking up to a new day after a heartbreaking evening.

5. Evening Light

Another “Light” mission, this 1980 iteration was an epic failure of the American military to end the Iran hostage crisis and rescue the 52 Americans trapped at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. For Swift, it’s aligned with Morning Light, and everyone knows how much she loves a theme — hello, “Midnights.”

6. All-American Tiger

In 2003, troops in Iraq were sent to patrol around the Euphrates River near Al-Qaim, where they found 12 people of interest. This, however, also sounds like the name of a Swiftian anthem — her answer to Katy Perry’s “Roar,” in which she sings, “I’ve got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire, ’cause I am a champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar.”

7. Gothic Serpent

Unfortunately, this was the 1993 mission that led to the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, the subject of the film “Black Hawk Down.” Alas, it could also lend its name to a particularly angsty song about the vipers in the press that so often spew venom about Swift’s personal life.

8. Steel Curtain

This 2005 mission meant to create a blockade to tamp down on the flood of insurgents into Iraq from Syria. However, it’s also a great name for the walls a celebrity like Swift might put up to keep the conspiracy theory-hunting fans and ravenous tabloids from invading her privacy.

9. Just Cause

This is the name given to the 1989 U.S. mission to invade Panama and remove military dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega from power. For Swift, it could be about the deliverance of justice, or, with the addition of an apostrophe, a song about things she does “just ‘cause.”

If Taylor Swift’s got a blank space, baby, maybe she’ll write down some of these titles.

Research from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, however, has discovered a way to neutralize the virus in mice. Though it’s early in testing, the results are promising.

Called Lyssavirus, from the Greek for “frenzy” or “madness,” rabies is both a danger and a concern for the U.S. military because areas where troops operate are often in locales where the virus is found present in wild dogs. Each year, it causes nearly 60,000 deaths worldwide.

“Although there are highly effective vaccines and post-exposure treatments for rabies, these interventions do not work once the virus reaches the central nervous system and neurological symptoms become apparent,” Dr. Brian Schaefer, one of the lead authors on the study, told Military Times.

Data shows the virus is nearly 100% fatal once a victim, someone bitten or exposed to the saliva of an infected animal, begins showing symptoms.

Treatments, as a result, “are thus focused on the early, pre-symptomatic stage of disease, with the goal of peripheral neutralization of virus to prevent CNS infection,” the study notes.

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports hundreds of animals are infected with rabies each year, no troops have been diagnosed with the virus since 2011.

However, this research has implications that expand beyond the rare cases of rabies and into various treatments for other viruses that attack the central nervous system.

“If these findings can be generalized to other viral pathogens that target the spinal cord and brain, this work may have broad implications for treating many other human viral diseases of the central nervous system, which are currently difficult to treat and often result in high rates of fatality and/or life-long debilitation,” Schaefer said.

This five-sided building is designed to be one the world’s largest, most utilitarian office buildings, and to say that it has all the charm of a prison cell is… generous. The menacing beige building was deemed “ugly as sin” by the Commission for Fine Arts, and frankly, waking up at 7 a.m. every day to sit in one of its thousands of dark cubicles is enough to make a grown man cry.

As a result, one such worker, an Army veteran by the name of Drew Duggins, took to Twitter to ask the best place to bawl among the Pentagon’s five halls.

Over a hundred responses poured in, with the suggestions ranging from funny to profoundly sad. These are Military Times’ preferred sob spots.

1. The parking lot, at dawn, watching the sun rise over D.C. knowing you won’t have access to the outside world for nine hours.

2. Into a burrito bowl from Moe’s at a dirty rice-crusted corner table. Don’t forget the queso.

3. In the bathroom after you get lost trying to find your way to your office on your first day.

4. In the courtyard, with the sun illuminating the tears on your face as cigarette smoke tingles into your nostrils, praying that the second-hand smoke takes you quickly.

5. On the ramp hallway that features black and white photos of Italian troops. It’s a really sensory experience.

6. With a box of Munchkins in your lap at Dunkin’ Donuts. Powdered sugar is known to dry tears.

7. At the gift shop. The knitted Pentagon scarves make good handkerchiefs. Plus, you could pick up a fun $60 snowglobe — that should help improve your mood.

8. At Popeye’s over biscuits and gravy. It’s already salty as sin, what could a few more tears do but enhance the flavor?

9. An empty sensitive compartmented information facility, more commonly known as a SCIF. Is there anything more sensitive than a good cry?

Bonus: At the Defense News and Military Times desks in the press pool. Come for the tears, stay for the stories.

World War II ended with a literal bang when the U.S. military leveled the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with never-before-seen atomic devastation. And though the explosive events of Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 live on as an ominous warning of the power of nuclear weapons, the series of events preceding those days have been relatively glossed over in the world of modern cinema — until now.

Christopher Nolan’s (”Dark Knight,” “Dunkirk”) “Oppenheimer” is a war epic, a revelation, and a cinematic masterpiece, but above all, it is a horror film. The sense of foreboding created while witnessing the best of humanity careen toward its own demise elicits a sense of dread more reminiscent of the best of the horror genre.

Loosely based on the biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” Nolan’s story of J. Robert Oppenheimer — the father of the atomic bomb — is both beautiful and terrifying.

Played by Cillian Murphy at his absolute best, Oppenheimer offers a portrait of the individual struggle between balancing the pursuit of greatness and bringing humanity the closest it has ever been to its own destruction.

Nolan, at the top of his game for his second World War II film (following the triumphant “Dunkirk”), hurls movie-goers into Oppenheimer’s life in an almost schizophrenic manner, jumping through time and incorporating black-and-white sequences to illustrate the frenzied lead up to those fateful days in 1945.

As an individual, Oppenheimer explores the moral conflicts of religion, politics, and philosophy that weigh heavily on his involvement in the infamous Manhattan Project, a decision he makes with a blend of hubris and scientific curiosity.

In the grand scheme, Oppenheimer’s decision to build the bomb is one he believes to be for the good of mankind. Exhibiting to the world this kind of destructive power, he naively thinks, will mean the end of all wars. In reality, the new technology threw the world into an arms race during the ensuing Cold War, the traces of which are still seen today as countries around the globe attempt to develop their own nuclear arsenals.

While viewers might expect the bombing events on August 6 and 9 to be the height of the film, the real climax arrives as the team prepares to drop a test explosive south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. The event marks the culmination of years of work conducted by the world’s smartest minds. And as the device is lowered for detonation, the pent-up fear that preceded it is unleashed in a firework display of destruction.

As the countdown hits zero, there is a flash and silence. A mushroom cloud pillows into the night sky. The feeling of victory for the team is immediate, but for the audience, there is a feeling more akin to the climax of a horror film in which the lead character realizes death is imminent.

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” Oppenheimer’s voice echoes over the aftershocks of the bomb. The quote from the Bhagavad Gita makes numerous appearances in the film, and though it’s a bit on the nose, it encapsulates what the physicist becomes in his quest for knowledge.

The sentiment that follows throughout the rest of the movie, to hearken back to Jurassic Park, is one of Manhattan Project personnel being so preoccupied with whether or not they could create an atomic bomb, that no one stops to consider whether they should.

The original impetus of nuclear development in the U.S. may have been to beat the Nazis to constructing the bomb, but once America’s nuclear program began — even with the Germans surrendering — there was no stopping it.

And Oppenheimer, once seen as an American patriot who brought about a heroic end to the war, must live with the realization that he may, in fact, be the greatest villain in human history.

“Oppenheimer” is in theaters July 21.